Polymeric Nanocomposite Foams in Biomedical Engineering

Polymer nanocomposite foams continue to attract scientific research and industrial commercial interest alike. Despite significant work on various polymer nanocomposite foam fabrication approaches and end-use applications, their utility in biomedical application has just started to emerge. This chapter is aimed at portraying the picture of the work undertaken on biomedical application of polymer nanocomposite foams. To this end, we first present different foam fabrication strategies available in the context of biomedical applications, followed by a discussion on different characterization methods, and finally a comprehensive discussion of studies conducted to date on biomedical applications of nanocomposite foams. We conclude with some of the biggest challenges in the field and possible avenues to be explored for clinical translation of nanocomposite foams. Considering the versatility of foam fabrication methods and available choice of polymer/nanofillers, there is a broad future and numerous discoveries to be made in biomedical research using nanocomposite foams.